Cambodia has realistically only been open to tourism since around 1998. The Khmer Rouge overtook their own country's capital in 1975 and summarily massacred probably two million people, in the aims of creating a Communist agrarian society (of non-thinkers). Inside Phnom Penh, a must-see is the sombering Tuol Sleng Museum. This former school was corrupted into a concentration camp and torture chamber during the Khmer Rouge's rule; now it's open to the public, disseminating information on the atrocities which occurred there and prominently displaying photos of thousands of victims of its horrors. The Khmer Rouge were weirdly meticulous about photographing headshots of their victims. Near the end of the Museum is a controversial statement: a map of Cambodia created from the skulls of victims. Though it had stood for a long time, I recently heard that within a few weeks of my visit the macabre map had been taken down.
© dominic arizona bonuccelli
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